


Christmas Lights, Keep Shining On

by catstrophysics



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, gift for a friend!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28368063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catstrophysics/pseuds/catstrophysics
Summary: Grantaire and Enjolras go on a date to walk around a park and look at the Christmas lights.
Relationships: Enjolras/Grantaire (Les Misérables)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30
Collections: The Hoeliday Exchange 2020





	Christmas Lights, Keep Shining On

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cx_shhhh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cx_shhhh/gifts).



> For [CX](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cx_shhhh). Merry Christmas, bro. It was so fun writing for your headcanons, and ALL SIX of Grantaire's fictional cats.

Meeting at the park was a bad idea. 

Grantaire knew what his head was like: Enjolras would run late, even just a few minutes, and he’d spiral into self-hatred and an “I told you so” feedback loop for the rest of the night. At least there was a food truck selling hot cocoa here, and at least the park’s lights display was pretty, and at least this still wasn’t the worst first date he’d been on. 

Frankly, he wasn’t sure if it was a date, but it certainly felt like one, and his heart was taking Enjolras’s absence exactly as hard as if it had been one. 

He was finally resigning himself to walking around alone and buying himself a consolation funnel cake when his phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled a mitten off to unlock it and answer, cursing the chilly wind on his fingers. 

It was Enjolras, and his heart started to sink as he answered. 

“Hi,” Grantaire said bluntly, and Enjolras panted into the phone. 

“Grantaire, where are you? I’ve been looking for you for ten minutes, I thought you’d bailed on me.” He sounded genuinely nervous, his usually-even voice belying a hint of panic. 

He looked around, searching for anything identifying. “Uh,” he started, trying to parse what the largest figure nearby was, “I’m near a blue light-up snowman and the Cocoa-2-Go food truck.” 

Enjolras fell silent over the line, and Grantaire heard his footsteps still. “Me, too,” he said, then: “oh.” A hand tapped him on the shoulder, and he started to smile before he even turned all the way around. 

Enjolras stood before him in a turtleneck sweater, still holding his phone up to his ear as his face smoothed out, a soft smile of his own settling over his lips. “I’m hanging up now,” Enjolras said, and his tinny echo in Grantaire’s ear repeated it a moment later. He lowered his phone, tucked it in his pocket, and leaned down to wrap Grantaire in a hug. “Found you.” 

The warmth bubbling up in Grantaire’s chest was filling him to bursting, and a laugh broke past his lips. “I was exactly where I said I’d be, it’s not like I left you a trail of breadcrumbs or whatever.” Nevertheless, he caught Enjolras’s hands in his own, his heart skipping a beat in anxiety as he frowned at how cold they were. 

They’d been unofficially together for months now, since summer began and they’d started spending nights at Grantaire’s working on posters and flyer designs and Grantaire listening as Enjolras workshopped himself through speeches. Nights had gone from tensely working in silence to joking around, and the first night Enjolras had come over without any deadlines looming just to watch movies stuck in Grantaire’s memory. 

But they’d never managed a date, never gotten together with the express premise of romance, tending towards falling asleep watching a documentary and waking up closer than they’d fallen asleep, or going out to lunch alone just because no one else was available (or so they said), or the one notable time Grantaire had dragged Enjolras to a couples’ ballroom dancing evening where they’d learned to foxtrot. 

So tonight was new to them both.

Everything was tentative again. Even Enjolras’s hug hello had been quick, furtive, and Grantaire wanted to try it all again, skip through the awkwardness and dive straight back into cooking dinner together in his flat and bickering about TV shows. 

“Shall we?” Enjolras asked, disentangling his hands and holding out his elbow for Grantaire to hold—since when did they do that? Since when was it forbidden to hold hands?—which he reluctantly took, a passing wish to pull Enjolras closer again taking hold and refusing to let him go. 

The park really was beautiful, even just after sunset before it was dark enough for the lights to shine at their full brightness. Enjolras was a tall, solid presence next to him, and despite being the source of his anxiety at the moment, he was comforting simply to be near. 

And gorgeous. 

Grantaire sometimes thought he was overestimating Enjolras’s looks; angelic was a strong word, even for him. But no, he decided, it was correct, because Enjolras’s blond hair _glowed_ in the lights, and at that moment he turned to look at Grantaire with a blinding smile, eyes crinkling at the edges. 

“I’m really glad I’m here with you.” He said it matter-of-factly, like it _didn’t_ set Grantaire’s heart on fire and make him want to kiss him then and there. “It’s been too long since we did something together,” Enjolras continued, oblivious to the nervous blush rising on Grantaire’s cheeks and _did he always have to be so blunt?_ , “especially something like this.” 

Tact was never an option. “Is this a date?” Grantaire blurted, and found himself fighting the urge to sprint home. 

Enjolras looked thoughtful for a second, then nervous, and the smile shrank on his face as he thought. “I’d hoped so,” he said finally, and Grantaire’s heart leapt into his throat, “but if you’re uncomfortable—” 

“—NO!,” he cut in. “I mean,” he cleared his throat, searched around for any remaining composure and dignity, “no, I’d, um. Been hoping it was meant to be a date, it seemed like one but I didn’t want to assume.” 

He regretted saying anything, because Enjolras fell into analysis immediately. “I don’t want to force you into this, if you don’t want to do something like that with me then friends, certainly, and I don’t mean to overstep at all, and.” He paused to take a breath, running his free hand through his hair and sending loose strands cascading back down around his face. Grantaire was nearly distracted past the point of forming a coherent thought, but he jumped in the silence anyways. 

“Date. It’s a date. And we’re spending too much of it standing here like teenagers debating whether or not it is, and there’s more lights to see and also funnel cake at the end, and if you’re very good we should go back to my place afterwards and I will stuff you full of molasses cookies.” 

Enjolras snapped his mouth shut, and a soft twinkle lit up his eyes. “Onward, then.” 

They fell back into step next to each other, pointing out particularly interesting (or weird) lights. Enjolras settled an arm around Grantaire’s waist after a few minutes, and he caught himself leaning into the touch before he could think otherwise. 

Walking was a little more challenging intertwined, and Enjolras’s annoyingly long legs meant Grantaire had to scurry an extra step every once in a while until Enjolras caught on and slowed down. 

It was Grantaire’s first Christmas _with_ someone, and, in a moment of clarity he’d prefer to never reveal to the general public, he was really starting to get all the romantic holiday songs. It was too easy to picture them doing this the following year, baking cookies together, watching Christmas movies like Die Hard. 

It was the little things he liked to think about most, and the very ones he’d staunchly refused to let himself think about because he and Enjolras would never, ever get together. 

Past Grantaire should eat his words. 

They circled the whole park in what felt like a minute but was probably closer to an hour, and Enjolras bought him a consolation funnel cake at the very end. “To put up with me being thick,” he justified, and Grantaire didn’t make a joke about his ass, for once. 

At the park gate, they paused, and Grantaire snatched up Enjolras’s hand as he regained possession of his arm. “Y’know,” he said, “that offer of coming over still stands.” 

The smile that stretched his cheeks was all the answer Grantaire needed, and he narrowly resisted the urge to kiss Enjolras then and there. 

That was for home. 

Walking through the city hand-in-hand, Enjolras offering nods in greeting to passerby on the street and running his thumb absently over Grantaire’s knuckles, might be as close to heaven as Grantaire will ever manage to get. 

Actually, scratch that. He unlocked the door and like clockwork, Enjolras sat down on the couch and claimed control of the TV remote as he popped open the box of cookies Grantaire had left on the coffee table and started munching. Four of Grantaire’s cats made their presences known, and dinnertime for Dionysus, Hestia, Demeter, and Aphrodite took priority over jumping on the couch with Enjolras. 

Six bowls of food and four eating cats later, he was ready to argue Enjolras out of watching The Man Who Invented Christmas (again), and was thwarted by Hephaestus and Zeus, his twin Maine coons taking up the other half of the couch. He was about to go sit on the floor when Enjolras caught him by the hem of his sweater and nodded towards his lap. 

A wave of heat passed through Grantaire, then apprehension as he settled himself on Enjolras’s thick thighs, pausing to scratch Zeus’s stomach as he turned his head around lazily. 

It turned out Enjolras’s lap was a fantastic vantage point for arguing, because he could simply lean back against his chest when he ran out of words to say. It didn’t talk them out of rewatching Enjolras’s movie, but he hadn’t really expected it to. They’d watched it twice in the month leading up to Christmas Eve, so it wasn’t like they were missing out on much when Enjolras’s lips found their way to Grantaire’s cheek, then the bridge of his nose, then finally his mouth. 

Grantaire’s neck was nearly sideways to meet Enjolras halfway, but the ache dulled to nothingness as a broad, warm hand came up to rest against his cheek, slotting against his jawline like a puzzle piece designed to fit. 

They’d missed a sizable chunk of the movie by the time Enjolras pulled away, resting his chin on Grantaire’s shoulder just close enough for his hair to tickle his cheek. 

_This_ was the closest to heaven Grantaire thought he’d ever get, especially when Aphrodite trotted over and sprung lightly onto the cushion next to Enjolras, setting one paw on his side against his sweater before headbutting him gently. She curled herself into a fluffy white ball as Enjolras stole one of his hands from its home on Grantaire’s hip to stroke gently down her back. 

Grantaire let himself relax further, sinking back against Enjolras as he watched—more like looked at—the movie. He didn’t really absorb the story of the movie as his focus slipped to the man underneath him. 

And then he woke up as he felt himself being moved ever-so-gently, a hand coming behind his shoulders and under his knees as he was picked up and carried to bed. He cracked an eye as Enjolras pulled the covers over him, and managed to mumble out a soft “you sh’ld stay” as he let his eyes fall closed again

For a moment, it seemed like Enjolras was going to decline and leave for the night. But instead, he nodded, and disappeared from Grantaire’s view for a moment, reappearing in the form of the other side of the bed dipping heavily. A disembodied hand appeared and brushed his hair back off of his forehead, and he smiled in spite of himself. 

“The cats’ll be furious,” he muttered, and a soft thump at the foot of the bed told him one of them was already coming to investigate who had taken over their share of Grantaire’s bed. 

“They can share.” 

“‘M cold.” 

A warm arm came and tugged him gently towards an even warmer chest. “Not anymore.” 

“You’re insufferable.” _And comfortable._

“And you’re…” Enjolras trailed off for a moment, and Grantaire fought the urge to look at him. “Adorable.” 

Fair enough, Grantaire supposed. 

He couldn’t stop smiling against the warm mass of Enjolras’s sweater-covered chest until he fell back into a deep sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Again, this was a part of a Secret Santa exchange for [CX](https://cx-shhhh.tumblr.com/) within the [hoes for Enjolras](https://discord.com/invite/vERrqvA) Discord server, which y'all should join! It's a great time. 
> 
> Happy Holidays, Merry (late) Christmas, and Happy New Year! Come say hi on my [Tumblr](https://catstrophysics.tumblr.com) if you want.


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